microMPEG4 - Tiny MPEG compression board supports ARM platforms

The microMPEG4 from Advanced Micro Peripherals is a sub credit-card sized, 4-channel MPEG-4
video compression module based on the 32bit mini PCI form factor. The microMPEG4 provides a
low power, high performance solution for capturing and compressing up to 4 concurrent live
analog video and audio inputs to full D1 resolution using MPEG-4. The microMPEG4 can also
decompress and playback recordings from storage to display and offers an additional incoming
live video path for simultaneous preview on the host screen.

The microMPEG4 is ideal for space constrained and deeply embedded, long life video applications.
The microMPEG4 is now supported with Linux drivers for ARM platforms as well as standard x86
systems making it suitable for platform solutions using Intel's IXP4xx family of ARM/XScale
network communication processors. The combination of these Intel ARM compatible solutions and
the microMPEG4 enables developers to create powerful monitoring solutions with resilient, fully
encrypted network communications.

For surveillance and monitoring applications, the microMPEG4 enables text and simple graphics
overlays to be combined with the live video for both preview and compression. The supplied SDK
enables data such as camera identification, date/time, location data and frame numbers to be
easily added to the video image.

The microMPEG4 is supported by a suite of drivers for PC based Windows 2000/XP, Linux and QNX
systems along with Linux drivers for ARM platforms - the standard video recording SDK and
sample applications are supplied free with the module. AMP also offers a Video Streaming SDK
to enable the compressed video to be streamed over an IP network.

The board can be optimized for specific application needs by balancing the number of channels
used against the image size and frame rate. The board also features motion detection and a
babysitting mode in which recording of incoming video is initiated only when a motion event
occurs within the field of interest. This minimizes storage requirements and demands on
operators' concentration.